Obsidian is volcanic glass, not metal, and is not forged

[kiturak]

... I'm sorry! (also sorry that this did not go into the discord, please feel free to delete) Obsidian's an extremely cool material and makes for immaculately sharp, although brittle, knives. As it is volcanic glass, you do not forge it, and a blacksmith would know that it is not a type of metal.

[TnJ]

...and chipped obsidian would make an awful grip so maybe he forged some parts that utilize an obsidian blade.

[kiturak]

Originally posted by TnJ:

...and chipped obsidian would make an awful grip so maybe he forged some parts that utilize an obsidian blade.

That would be a convincing solution! (Do the oddballs have blades? I can't recall ...)
It literally says he is looking for another type of metal, though, and the ingots don't make sense. Obsidian traditionally is never melted (I'm not a geologist, but ppl say the obsidian's qualities come from being molten at volcanic temperatures and formed under pressure), but instead worked by different techniques that fracture existing pieces.
It's been fascinating to look it up.
So, Obsidian: highly misunderstood in a couple of video games, going so far as making armor out of it lol. Or, quoting a geologist relative:

enemy *throws a small stone*
me *bleeds to death*

[kiturak]

... I'm really not like that normally lol, sorry I know! It's just - I can do a little suspension of disbelief when ppl have "obsidian" this or that. It's an entirely different pair of shoes to have a blacksmith call it a metal, and promise to use it with hammer and anvil. That is just cruel. It's volcanic glass, and incredibly cool for what it is.

[Fendelphi]

It could be an alloy of some kind. No idea what the properties would be though(as in, why you would want to use such a composite material, rather than steel).

Obsidian is often used in RPGs as some kind of "dark coloured armor", due to sounding exotic(kind of the opposite of "mithril armor"-types which are usually silvery).

They also make an armor piece out of a ruby and an emerald, so maybe it is used as a catalyst.